1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to protective devices for use in protecting joints such as elbows and knees of users engaged in active sports, for example in-line skating, skateboarding, roller skating, snowboarding and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Protective devices such as knee and elbow pads are commonly used in active sports to protect the user's joints from bodily injury during falls onto pavements or against other hard surfaces. The conventional knee and elbow pad designs comprise three principal components. One component is a cushion pad made of a foam material or the like which lies over the knee or elbow. Another component is a fabric covering, such as an elastic sleeve, which fits around the top of the cushion pad and around the back of the joint. The third component is rigid cup-shaped wear cap that fits over the fabric covering in front of the knee or elbow. The wear cap is typically formed of a hard, durable and rigid material which is intended to dissipate some of the energy impacting upon the protective device during a fall. In certain industrial applications, such for use by floor installers or aircraft baggage handlers, the wear cap is replaced by a softer, flexible non-skid or non-sliding cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,924 to Sims discloses a protective pad adapted to fit about a knee or elbow. The pad includes an inner foam layer, a rigid metal shield affixed to the foam layer, a neoprene layer coated on the outer surface of the shield, and a nylon cover about the neoprene layer. Straps are employed to secure the device about the knee or elbow. One disadvantage of this device is when it hits a hard surface during a fall the impact causes point loading on the unyielding metal shield. Point loading means that the impact forces are concentrated at a relatively small area at the point of impact. This point loading would not only tend to shred the nylon cover but would also tend to tear through the leg of any pants that may be worn over the protector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,391 to Levine provides a knee pad comprising a foam member covered by a fabric patch which in turn is stitched to a body portion. The patent describes the body portion as being fabricated from an elastic material, for example neoprene. Such a device has no protective cap and thus would not provide sufficient protection from the aggressive forces encountered during a fall by users engaged in active sports which include in-line skating and skateboarding.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,052 to Butler provides a knee and/or elbow protector in which a cushion pad is sandwiched between an inner fabric sleeve and an outer fabric panel. Plastic protective panels are fitted over the outer panel and woven elastic tapes are then secured to the plastic panel by stitching. Such a device would be vulnerable to the problem of point loading during falls, as discussed above.
The need has therefore been recognized for a joint protector which obviates the foregoing and other limitations and disadvantages of the prior art knee and elbow pad protectors. Despite the various knee and elbow pad protectors in the prior art, there has heretofore not been provided a suitable and attractive solution to these problems.